A Mythic Champion already, this weekend represents a triumphant return to Magic for the Pro Tour Return to Ravnica winner. Along with roommate Ondřej Stráský, Cifka broke open Standard over the summer and used that to qualify via a MTG Arena online tournament. Thanks this Top 8 appearance with Bant Ramp guaranteeing him a spot in Mythic Championship VII in December, it's official: Cifka is back. But he has one matter of business left this weekend: adding another title to his collection.
Italian MPL player Andrea Mengucci is notable for his great play, tight Magic friendships, winning the Mythic Invitational earlier this year, and, of course, for #mengucciquisine, the hashtag he uses to track his culinary adventures. This is his fourth Mythic Championship Top 8, and it's part of an already sparkling season of consistent performance that includes 11th at Mythic Championship I, 40th at Mythic Championship II, and 28th at Mythic Championship III.
This is the fifth Top Finish for inimitable Japanese pro Ken Yukuhiro. He's had a Top 8 every single season since 2015, including in 2017 when he also took home the Pro Tour Team Series trophy as a member of team Musashi. Known for exciting deckbuilding and rogue choices, Yukuhiro didn't disappoint at Mythic Championship V, launching himself into the Top 8 with Mardu Knights featuring Zombie Dinosaurs carrying powerful swords.
It doesn't get better than a Top 8 with William "Huey" Jensen in it. The Magic Hall of Famer and 2017 Magic World Champion went against the grain and stayed away from a Field of the Dead deck—he embraced the Wicked Wolf alongside Oko, Thief of Crowns and leveraged them to a Top 8 finish. This is his seventh career Top Finish, and he'll seek to add another Mythic Champion title to his already stacked case of hardware.
This is an incredible sixth Top Finish for Lee Shi Tian, a member of the Magic Hall of Fame class of 2018. He won the Sapphire Division of the 2019 Core Split, which put him directly into Day Two here at Mythic Championship V. After losing a win-and-in for the Top 8 at Mythic Championship III, he was overjoyed to make the Top 8 this weekend with a hyper-aggressive deck featuring Cavalcade of Calamity—which it brought to a field full of shambling, slow decks.
The third Magic Hall of Famer in the Top 8, Gabriel "Yellowhat" Nassif is actually competing at Mythic Championship V as a Challenger after finishing as one of the top four Challengers previously at Mythic Championship III. With a distinguished professional Magic career, as well as a prolific streamer and content creator, Nassif was no underdog this weekend. He put on a show with Simic Food en route to the Top 8—adding to an incredible nine Top Finishes before this weekend. Now he looks for yet another Mythic Championship trophy on Sunday.
This is the second Top Finish for French MPL player Jean-Emmanuel Depraz. He burst onto the pro scene when he placed first at GP Warsaw and seventh at Pro Tour Rivals of Ixalan while leading France to victory in the 2018 World Magic Cup—all in the same year. While he favored the Izzet Drakes deck last Standard season, at Mythic Championship V he abandoned it for Bant Golos, a strategy well-suited to his midrange inclinations.
One of the most memorable events in Magic history was Javier Dominguez's win in the finals of the 2018 Magic World Championship just one year after his finalist finish to William Jensen in the 2017 Magic World Championship. The Spanish MPL member considers himself an aggressive player who likes to find the weakest link in his opponent's plan and attack it. He had multiple finishes just outside of a Top 8 before finally breaking through to the Top 8 of Pro Tour Rivals of Ixalan in 2018, and he's had a stellar career ever since.
